It was a well-rounded budget with a continued focus on growth in different sectors like education, health, infrastructure, and agriculture. The announcement of the setting up of 75 digital banks across 75 districts of the country gives an additional boost to digital payments and the fintech ecosystem in the country. With this budget, India’s tax regime on virtual assets like cryptocurrency is also finally here with the government introducing taxation on crypto at 30% along with 1% TDS. This higher taxation rate puts cryptocurrencies at a disadvantage against equity investments like stocks and Mutual funds that attract an LTCG of 10%. However, there was no big break/ relief for taxpayers in this budget, which is a bit disappointing considering the high expectations of the middle classes. A relief like an increase in the Section 8C limit which was last revised around 8 years ago would have worked as an incentive for people to invest more in financial assets like ELSS funds and NPS.
